Notre Dame Wins at Syracuse 8-0

Erikson's Hat Trick Leads to Victory

Meotis Erikson scored her first career hat trick against Syracuse. (File photo)

SYRACUSE, N.Y.-- Freshman forward Meotis Erikson scored her first career hat trick to lead the second-ranked Notre Dame women's soccer team to an 8-0 win at Syracuse in front of a record, sellout crowd of 1,500, the largest ever to watch either a men's or women's game at Syracuse. With the win, Notre Dame improves to 14-0-1 and 8-0-0 in BIG EAST games. Syracuse falls to 12-4-0, 5-4-0 in conference games.

Jenny Heft shocked the Orangewomen with the fastest goal of the year for the Irish when she took a pass from Jenny Streiffer that split the defense and scored from eight yards just 54 seconds into the game. Erikson then scored the first of her goals at 3:39 with a blast through the goalkeeper hands that gave the Irish an early 2-0 lead.

Erikson connected just nine minutes later with a shot from the left wing from 18 yards that sailed into the lower left corner of the net. Shannon Boxx sent Notre Dame into halftime with a 4-0 lead with a header off a corner kick from Holly Manthei at 37:03.

Freshman defender Kelly Lindsey opened the scoring in the second half with her first career goal when she penetrated through the Syracuse defense to the right wing from 15 yards and fired in a goal to the upper left corner of the net. Heft volleyed in her second goal and Erikson blasted in her third from 15 yards just 2:20 apart to give Notre Dame a 7-0 lead at 72:30. Monica Gonzalez closed out the scoring at 89:07 when she volleyed in a loose ball in front of the net.

With her hat trick, Erikson has now scored at least one goal in seven consecutive games, the longest streak for Notre Dame this season. She has scored 11 goals in those seven games and has scored at least one point in the last eight games. Holly Manthei holds a concurrent streak with 17 assists in the last eight games.

The Irish defense allowed the Orangewomen just four shots but goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene made four diving saves to record her 12th shutout of the season, just one short of Jen Renola's 1995 Notre Dame single-seaons record of 13. The shutout was the seventh for Beene in eight BIG EAST games, breaking the conference single-season mark of six set in 1995 by Renola and Connecticut's Siobhan Harold. She entered the game with the best goals against average in the country and lowered her average to 0.27 with her sixth-consecutive shutout, matching an Irish record for consecutive shutouts set in 1989 by Michelle Lodyga.

Beene will be looking for her seventh straight shutout and 13th on the season when Notre Dame returns to action on Fri., Oct. 24, against Seton Hall at Alumni Field, the first of four home games to close out the regular season.